The road leading to Shabdo. Telegraph picture

Shabdo, Feb. 3: From Shabdo to Rajbigha. Sarita and Mahesh apparently had their lives cruelly snuffed out for having dared to turn their gaze from one Gaya village to another.

The murdered social workers, who headed an NGO for community development in Shabdo and achieved a fair bit, were believed to have been mulling expanding their activities to Rajbigha.

As their plans infringed on the interests of a powerful Yadav gang ruling the roost there, they were bumped off, preliminary investigations said. The gang, led by Budhan and Sadhu Yadav, is allegedly backed by Rashtriya Janata Dal MLA Shamdeo Paswan.

The gang allegedly had elaborate plans to grab Dalit land in the village, which, it feared, the activist duo could derail. Already, it has usurped three acres. As for Shamdeo, he had all along been jittery with the growing popularity of the activists and unhappy with their efforts to turn Shabdo into a model village.

“Continuing the process of empowerment, when the social workers turned to Rajbigha, Budhan and Sadhu felt threatened. The local MLA, who felt his base was eroding due to interference by the social workers, decided to embark on a collision course against the leaders of Shabdo experiment,” a veteran RJD leader Srinarayan Singh Yadav said.

Both Shabdo and Rajbigha are Yadav villages but have, of late, been locked in a bitter tussle. With rival gangs controlling the villages, the fighting has filtered to the level of the com- mon people. Villagers loyal to one gang often cross swords with those owing allegiance to the other.

Shabdo villagers have been seething since the deaths of Sarita and Mahesh. They believe Shamdeo has been protecting Budhan and Sadhu and he was instrumental in shifting the focus away from Shabdo. Many also talk of his alleged proximity to Surendra Yadav, a former minister.

“We have heard the complaints and are investigating,” Gaya police superintendent Sanjay Singh said.

But Shamdeo angrily brushed off allegations of his hand in the case. “Who is talking of my hostility to Shabdo? If Shabdo villagers are saying this, why not talk to other villagers? I am nowhere in all this. My name is being unnecessarily dragged into the case. If this happens, I will expose everything.”

The police have so far arrested two persons, Bhubneswar Yadav and Rohit Yadav. Bhubneswar is the father of gang leader Sadhu, one of the key accused in the case. Senior officers said a CBI probe is likely.

RJD insiders said the caste fissures in Gaya had begun to take their toll on Laloo Prasad Yadav’s party as well. These fissures could be directly linked to the top-rung leadership in the district, they said.

Yadav loyalties in Gaya are broadly split between Surendra Yadav — a don-turned-former-minister in the Rabri Devi cabinet — and Bindi Yadav, a relatively young leader who was the district RJD president and chairman of the zilla parishad.

Surendra, jailed for a series of criminal cases, is now walking free. Bindi is still behind bars. Bindi plans to contest the next state elections from jail and has been doing some good work.

In Fatehpur and Manpur blocks of the district, where a fierce battle for consolidation is on, Bindi recently sanctioned Rs 22 lakh for Shabdo from funds belonging to the Gaya district development council.

This caused a furore in the area. “When that money was for all the villages in Fatehpur block, why should it go to Shabdo only?” an RJD leader asked.